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I now recollect, with melancholy pleasure, two little anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, indicating a zeal for religion which one cannot but admire, however characteristically rough. When the Abbé Raynal was introduced to him, upon the Abbé's advancing to shake his hand, the Doctor drew back, and put his hands behind him, and afterward replied to the expostulation of a friend, "Sir, I will not shake hands with an infidel!" At another time I remember asking him if he did not think the Dean of Derry a very agreeable man, to which he made no answer; and on my repeating my question, "Child," said he, "I will not speak anything in favor of a Sabbath-breaker, to please you, nor any one else.". Hannah More.

The Abbé Raynal probably remembers that, being at the house of a common friend in London, the master of it approached Johnson with that gentleman, so much celebrated, in his hand and this speech in his mouth: "Will you permit me, sir, to present to you the Abbé Raynal ?" "No, sir," replied the Doctor, very loud, and suddenly turned away from them both.-Mrs. Piozzi.

COARSENESS.

JOHNSON'S Coarseness pervaded, in some measure, his whole nature. I have accordingly arranged the materials for this portion of my work in three divisions-Sensuous, Intellectual, and Moral.-Editor.

SENSUOUS.-We had the music of the bagpipe every day, at Amidale, Dunvegan, and Col. Dr. Johnson appeared fond of it, and used often to stand for some time with his ear close to the great drone.-Boswell.

On Wednesday, April 7th, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's. I have not marked what company was there.

Johnson harangued upon the qualities of different liquors, and spoke with great contempt of claret, as so weak that "a man would be drowned by it before it made him drunk.” He was persuaded to drink one glass of it, that he might judge, not from recollection, which might be dim, but from immediate sensation. He shook his head, and said, "Poor stuff! No, sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men: but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy. In the first place, the flavor of brandy is most grateful to the palate; and then brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him. There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attained. And yet," proceeded he, "as in all pleasure hope is a considerable part, I know not but fruition comes too quick by brandy. Florence wine I think the worst; it is wine only to the eye; it is wine neither while you are drinking it, nor after you have drunk it: it neither pleases the taste, nor exhilarates the spirits." I mentioned his scale of liquors -claret for boys, port for men, brandy for heroes. "Then," said Mr. Burke, "let me have claret: I love to be a boy-to have the careless gayety of boyish days." Johnson: "I should drink claret too, if it would give me that; but it does not it neither makes boys men, nor men boys. You'll be drowned by it before it has any effect upon you."—Boswell.

Johnson's notions about eating were nothing less than delicate a leg of pork boiled till it dropped from the bone, a veal-pie with plums and sugar, or an outside cut of a salt buttock of beef, were his favorite dainties. With regard to drink, his liking was for the strongest, as it was not the flavor, but the effect, he sought for, and professed to desire; and when I first knew him, he used to pour capillaire into his port-wine. For the last twelve years, however, he left off all fermented liquors. To make himself some amends, indeed, he took his chocolate liberally, pouring in large quantities of cream, or even melted butter.—Mrs. Piozzi.

Dr. Johnson loved a fine dinner, but would eat, perhaps, more heartily of a coarse one-boiled beef or veal-pie. Fish he seldom passed over, though he said that he only valued the sauce, and that everybody eat the first as a vehicle for the second. When he poured oyster-sauce over plum-pudding, and the melted butter flowing from the toast into his chocolate, one might surely say he was nothing less than delicate.-Mrs. Piozzi (extract from a letter).

Of the beauties of painting Johnson had not the least conception, and the notice of this defect led me to mention the following fact: One evening, at the club, I came in with a small roll of prints, which, in the afternoon, I had picked up; I think they were landscapes of Perelle, and laying it down with my hat, Johnson's curiosity prompted him to take it up and unroll it: he viewed the prints severally with great attention, and asked me what sort of pleasure such things could afford me. IIe said that in his whole life he was never capable of discerning the least resemblance of any kind between a picture and the subject it was intended to represent. To the delights of music he was equally insensible; neither voice nor instrument, nor the harmony of concordant sounds, had power over his af fections, or even to engage his attention. Of music in general, he has been heard to say, “It excites in my mind no ideas, and hinders me from contemplating my own;" and of a fine singer, or instrumental performer, that "he had the merit of a canary-bird.”—Sir John Hawkins (abridged).

INTELLECTUAL. He said, "Garrick was no declaimer; there was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken To be or not to be,' better than he did."J. P. Kemble.

After the king withdrew, Johnson showed himself highly *George the Third.

pleased with his Majesty's conversation and gracious behavior. He said to Mr. Barnard, "Sir, they may talk of the king as they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." And he afterward observed to Mr. Langton, "Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Louis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second."-Boswell.

A stranger to Johnson's character and temper would have thought that the study of Shakspeare must have been the most pleasing employment that his imagination could suggest; but it was not so. In a visit that he one morning made to me, I congratulated him on his now being engaged in a work that suited his genius, and that, requir ing none of that severe application which his Dictionary had condemned him to, would be executed con amore. His answer was, "I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary; it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of."- Sir John Hawkins (abridged).

When he again talked of Mrs. Careless to-night, he seemed to have had his affection revived; for he said, "If I had married her, it might have been as happy for me." Boswell: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy as with any one woman in particular." Johnson: “Ay, sir, fifty thousand." Boswell: "Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain men and certain women are made for each other; and that they cannot be happy if they miss their counterparts." Johnson: "To be sure not, sir. I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter."-Boswell.

MORAL-For sundry beneficed clergymen that requested him, he composed pulpit discourses, and for these, he made no scruple of confessing, he was paid: his price, I am informed, was a moderate one-a guinea. He reckoned that he had written about forty sermons; but, except as to some, knew not in what hands they were "I have," said he, "been paid for them, and have no right to inquire about them."-Sir John Hawkins (abridged).

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He contributed the Preface to "Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce," in which he displays such a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the subject as might lead the reader to think that its author had devoted all his life to it. I asked him whether he knew much of Rolt, and of his work. "Sir," said he, "I never saw the man, and never read the book. The booksellers wanted a Preface to a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. I knew very well what such a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a Preface accordingly."-Boswell.

Ev

He said, "I am sorry that prize-fighting is gone out. ery art should be preserved, and the art of defence is surely important. Prize-fighting made people accustomed not to be alarmed at seeing their own blood, or feeling a little pain from a wound."-Boswell.

On Friday, April 10th, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where we found Dr. Goldsmith. I started the question, whether duelling was consistent with moral duty. The brave old General fired at this, and said, with a lofty air, "Undoubtedly a man has a right to defend his honor." Goldsmith (turning to me): "I ask you first, sir, what would you do if you were affronted ?" I answered, I should think it necessary to fight. "Why, then," replied Goldsmith, "that solves the question." Johnson: "No, sir, it does not solve the question. It does not follow that what a

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